The After Years
by Hungergamesobsession
Summary: After the long awaited revolution finally took place, Katniss and Peeta live and adventerous life with their two children. This is a continuation of the Mockingjay epilogue located in the back of the book. Go see my new series which starts from before they get married! /s/9898440/1/Always
1. Chapter 1

The After Years

Chapter 1

It has been five years since the rebellion, and since those five years, Peeta and I have had two children. Rue and Haymitch are their names. Speaking of Haymitch, ever since we first got out of the dark, tedious shelter of District 13, he is only sober when he is around my children. He tells me that he feels the need of showing good influence on my kids, because he knows that drinking has made his life a lot worse, and I agree with him for once.

On the first day of Rue's long years of school, I gather her lunch together, and someone covering their warm hands over my eyes startles me. "Peeta?" I ask, although I know there is no one else who would do this. I quickly turn around and I find his lips close to mine. A big grin develops across my face, and right before I go in to kiss him…

"MOM! MOMMY! MOM. MOM. MOM!" Haymitch desperately yells across the room. "I WANNA GO TO SCHOOL!" His words drags on, and in some ways, his voice imitates Haymitch, the one whom he was named after.

"Haymitch, you have to wait another year or two; until you are old enough." Peeta replies. His voice is convincing enough that Haymitch just gives a bright smile and walks up to the stairs in his room.

"How about you take him to the bakery today. Teach him some skills that could benefit us when you get too old." I tell Peeta, and we both laugh at the thought.

"Alright. You take Rue to school and I'll take Haymitch. Meet me at the bakery for lunch?" He asks in almost a command.

"Yea. Sure. See you there." I kiss him on the forehead and call down Rue for school.

As Rue walks down the stairs, I notice for the first time the resemblance in Prim. Before the tears run down my face, I swoop her up from the bottom of the steps and give her a big kiss on the cheek.

"Well look what we have here, little duck. My beautiful Rue Primrose Mellark!" I announce throughout the house, and down comes Haymitch and it makes me chuckle when he says, "Wow, Rue. You look stunning!"

His vocabulary is growing so quickly that it makes me proud, and I look at Peeta, who I notice has been watching the scene with his coffee mug in hand, and he says "You're growing up, sweetheart." The word sweetheart is always something Peeta uses to only recognize the fact that Haymitch was a great influence in our lives, ignoring that he was drunk for most of it.

By the time this conversation ends, it is past the time we intended to leave. Peeta grabs all four of our heavy winter coats and gathers us around so we can have a big family hug. The warmth of my children and Peeta together runs through my body, and I wonder if they get the same feeling. We go towards each other, and exchange a big kiss.

"Ewwww!" Haymitch and Rue both shout, and we're out the door by the second.

"Alright, we will see you two soon." I say to Haymitch and Peeta, and we are off to the big school located where the hob took place before it was burned down.

District 12 has actually grown to be better than it was before. It is a happy place, and most of the rebels from the underground District 13 have moved in here. I see families, happy families, walking their children to their first day of school. A lot of the children are survivors of the destruction of District 12 after the arena blew up on my part, leaving some of them without parents. Since most of the people from District 13 became infertile from the contagious disease, they were happy to adopt them into their lives.

"Mom?" My mind snaps back into reality. "Is school hard… or… scary?" Rue asks me with a frown on her face.

"No honey. You see, when I was your age, school was a lot different from what it is now. All we learned about was coal mining and the revolution in the Dark Days. But now, you will be learning how to read and to write, and don't worry, you'll like it. You're a smart little duck, eh?" This response brings a sigh of relief, and she just smiles in return.

We arrive at what is now called the School of District 12. It is not a very creative name, but a lot of the children who used to live here still call it the hob, and in some cases, the Hob School. I take Rue in her classroom, and I find that her teacher is Greasy Sae. I smile as I see her, and I run to her and give her a big hug. Ever since Peeta returned to District 12, Greasy Sae stopped coming over to help me. Surprisingly, this is the first time I've seen her since.

"Katniss. It's great to see you. How is your family?" She asks me in her old, shaky voice.

"Well here is one of my children. The other isn't old enough for school yet. Although, he is definitely smart enough to come to school." I tell her, and she laughs as if she already knows.

"Rue. Hi. How are you?" She asks, and I become confused because I did not know she even knew who she was.

"How did you…" She interrupts me saying, "I was there at the hospital. I heard around that you were with child, so I decided just to find out her name. It was beautiful, her name, and she resembled so much of…

"Prim" I fill in the blanks she can't seem to fill in herself.

"Yes, and I wanted so badly to walk into that room and just say hello and congratulations, but I didn't have the guts Katniss. I just couldn't…

"Greasy Sae. It's alright. Why were you so scared?" I asked her.

"I just thought you didn't want me anymore. I didn't know how you would respond to my being there, especially with post pregnancy mood swings and what not," she explains to me with tears filling up in her eyes. I giggle a little about the mood swings statement, which is true.

"Oh… Greasy Sae. I love you. I would never not want you. You understand that, right?" What I tell her brings loads of comfort to her face, and the watery eyes begin to flow like a stream. I imagine the stream in the Hunger Games years ago that took me from dehydration. The stream saved my life, and her tears are falling so fast that they remind me of the flow of the stream.

"Okay. Thank you. Now excuse me while I wash up these tears that you made happen." She says sarcastically.

I laugh at the joke she said, and I realize that she has never joked like that. It makes me happy to finally see her again. I turn around to see that Rue is already making friends. I can tell the other kids admire her, and that brings me joy. Prim was just that way. Everyone loved her beauty, personality, and her in general. Now, I get to see that in Rue, too. People also loved Rue. I could see it during the victory tour when I gave my speech. The thought of that is quickly gone when I give my head a shake, because I soon think of the man who died that day. I can't stand to think about that.

I walk up to Rue, who is all grown up just within a matter of minutes. I give her a big kiss goodbye, and I say,

"Rue, you are already making friends. Trust me; you're going to love school." She smiles and gives me a kiss goodbye,

and soon I notice the eyes of Rue's newly made friends staring at me with admiration. They know who I am.

"Hello. How are you fine young children doing?" When I ask, a small girl replies,

"Oh. Fine, just our first day of school is all… nothing special," her sarcastic joke makes me laugh pretty hard,

and they all laugh also. I finally make it out the door, and out to the snow I go. I pass by many happy faces with a quick

"Hello" and "How are you?"

As I walk through the thick snow on the streets of the town, I kick chunks of snow across the road with my big snow boots.I stop by the market which favors the old black market. It is more of a store rather than a trading facility, but the feeling inside of it is much like what it used to be.

I buy some sugar, strawberries, and a small can of whipped cream for Rue's first day of school treat. I also slip in a gift for Peeta. It is his favorite kind of chocolate, he says, and the popularity of the chocolates has grown throughout Panem. I buy a box of a dozen chocolates. They are called Lindor Truffles. The store owner tells me that long before the Dark Days the chocolates were very popular.

The last thing I buy is for Haymitch, my son, and it is a notebook and a pencil. I see him attempting to draw or paint in his room using only the floor and a few markers. This should solve the problem. A bright feeling comes to me, because I know that his hands move just like Peeta's did when he was painting in the memorial book for me. I watch them every day when he is playing in the snow. He draws pictures in the snow that are actually quite good.

As I am checking out, I find something that sits on the front desk of the store, and it seems to be some sort of pin.

"What's this?" I ask, and as soon as the words come out of my mouth, I know what it is.

"It's a mockingjay. Ha. You were the one that made all districts of Panem, including the capitol, sell these in every store. It's quite amazing, actually. I'm pretty sure it is forced by law, so people can remember the face of the revolution that brought peace to this world."

"Right, of course." I say, as I am walking out the door with my bag full of goodies. I didn't even know this until now. My mind gets off of the pin when I hear a familiar voice call my name. What comes with the voice is not a familiar face. Long, blond curls run down her shoulders and to her belly button. This lady is beautiful, and I still cannot make out who it is, until…

"Well, Katniss, come come come. Looks like we've got a big big day!" She yells, and I immediately know who it is. Effie.


	2. Chapter 2

"Effie! Effie… oh my! Where did your…"

"Whole face go? Well, when the capitol took me in to prison, I lost all respect for them. I completely took off all of my makeup and threw out all of my wigs. I bought a completely new wardrobe." She tells me, in hope for a good response.

"Effie, you look more beautiful than ever" I tell her, and she smiles in gratefulness. "Where have you been? Where did you stay for the past five years?"

"I moved to District 3. After staying there for a few years, I began to hate it more and more. That's when I decided to come here," she told me.

"I'm glad you're here. Come with me, I'll introduce you to my son, and when my daughter gets out of school I'll introduce you to her too." I say waving her towards the bakery.

"Well, I was actually hoping to see Haymitch. It's been a while," she says, hoping to get an okay from me.

"Oh well, alright. Go ahead. I'll see you later."

What she just confirmed was either that she missed him, or Effie Trinket might actually have feelings for someone. This is a weird thought, because Effie has always seemed to despise Haymitch, but maybe she was too scared to express her feelings.

I finally arrive to the bakery, just in time for lunch. The smell of a fresh meal makes me even hungrier. I call Peeta's name, and he comes out of the kitchen of the bakery with Haymitch in one hand. In the other hand he holds a full plate of turkey, potatoes, and lamb stew sits in a bowl on top of the plate. I can tell it is lamb stew by the smell and the perfection it is made. Peeta always knows exactly how to satisfy me.

"It's my favorite!" I laugh and give him and Haymitch a kiss on the cheek.

We sit down at a table in the back room made especially for our family. We only eat lunch here on occasion. The room is filled with paintings that Peeta made of our family. As I begin to eat, I remember what I was going to tell him.

"Guess who I saw today?" He looks at me as if he is asking who, and I tell him, "Effie. Although I wouldn't call her Effie. She has changed immensely over the past five years. No more capitol Effie. I actually like the new look," I tell him and he finishes chewing his food before he talks.

"Wow, What is she doing here?" Peeta asks.

"Well I think she hated District 3. That's where she moved to after she got out of the capitol. She said she wanted to come here. But when I told her to come meet our kids, she said she wanted to see Haymitch first," Haymitch looks at me thinking I am talking about him.

"Not you, Haymitch. The adult," Peeta confirms his confusion. "So do you think Effie actually missed Haymitch?"

"That's exactly what I though was strange. I'm hoping that is true, though. Haymitch might actually go back to normal when he finds that someone loves him," I tell Peeta.

"Let's hope so," he says back to me.

We have finished our lunch and I decide to give the gifts I got Peeta and Haymitch. I take them out of the bag, and I can see the excitement on Haymitch's face. Peeta's face is a lot more subtle and calm. I take out the notebook and pencils and hand them to Haymitch, who immediately screams with excitement and sits back down to draw. Then I pull out Peeta's favorite chocolates and he smiles and says, "Yum!"

We both look at Haymitch and make sure he is distracted, and before we know it we are finally kissing for the first time in what seems to have been a long time. The same feeling I got at the beach in the arena returns, and now I remember exactly why I felt that way. His lips are warm to the touch, and I feel him embrace my arm.

"Sorry to interrupt, but…" Effie says, and it sends Peeta flying into his arms. If I wouldn't have told him about her return, he would not have recognized her whatsoever.

"Peeta, it is nice to see you two. I really did miss you," She says, and I can see the same tears that were running down before we left for the arena. This makes me choke up, and then I see Haymitch Abernathy as sober as ever. Just what I thought. Peeta and I look at each other, both satisfied with the outcome.

"I see you two finally warmed up to each other after all of those years. Took you forever, sweetheart," he says directly to me, and before he finished I am in his arms hugging him ever so tightly.

"If only you weren't drunk half of the time, you would know that I warmed up a lot earlier than you'd think," I gesture my head towards Peeta, and he knows just how to respond.

"Yeah Haymitch. Were you at our wedding? Or were you not invited because you were too drunk?" Peeta says jokingly. Everyone laughs, including Haymitch. I can see in his eyes that he might be getting better. Maybe it is because of the presence of Effie. I don't know, but I see a change in him already.

"Ha. Well, I came here to tell you two something," Peeta and I look at each other, right as Effie and Haymitch do the same. "You see. I've always hated my excessive drunkness, and I knew it needed to stop, but I didn't know how. Then Effie came, and I knew that I needed to stop drinking. For her. For you. For myself. OH! Another thing. Effie and I are getting married!" Haymitch says, and for the first time I see a big smile on his face. Not just with his mouth, but with his eyes too. That's when the tears came, and I ran straight into them both and gave them a huge hug.

"Congratulations you two. Looks like you're finally warming up to each other, sweetheart," I give Haymitch the same glare he gave me.


End file.
